


Jahar, I'm pregnant

by MsMxyzptlk



Category: Jahar Tsarnaev
Genre: F/M, One F-Word
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-23
Updated: 2013-08-23
Packaged: 2017-12-24 09:12:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/938184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsMxyzptlk/pseuds/MsMxyzptlk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Here is a soft, fluffy romantic story about Jahar. PG-13, with just one F-word. No reference to the bombing.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Jahar, I'm pregnant

**Author's Note:**

> Here is a soft, fluffy romantic story about Jahar. PG-13, with just one F-word. No reference to the bombing.

I sat on the toilet seat, gazing at the object in my hand as if it were a sixteen-legged spider.

_What the hell?_

I clutched my heart as if I were an old person on the verge of a heart attack.

_How can this be?_

Underneath my conscious thought stream was this desperate cry:

_(Jahar Jahar Jahar please help me)_

He couldn’t help, however, if he didn’t know.

_You must tell him._

_Now._

I stood up and flushed the toilet. I pulled up my pants and wrapped the object carefully in toilet paper. I wanted to keep it as proof.

Once I looked presentable again, I sent this text:

_Jahar, I need to talk to you. In person. How soon?_

A few seconds later, this reply:

_i’m doin biz with a few homies in the dorm c yu in 10?_

_That’s fine._

_ight. luv yu babe_

I put down the phone. One step down.

Who knew how many to go?

In any event, I could think of no good way to tell a guy you weren’t married to news like this.

No matter how much you loved him...and hoped he loved you.

* * *

Jahar, as usual, made good on his word.

Exactly ten minutes later, I heard a knock on my door.

I opened it, and here he was. Leaning on my doorway with one hand in his jeans pocket, giving me a sassy, carefree smile.

_How carefree will he be once I tell him?_

“Hey...” Jahar leaned forward to kiss me, his fingers curling around my neck. “Wazzup, baby girl?”

His typical greeting made me smile and cringe at the same time. He had no idea of the new double meaning.

“Well...I have some news, Jahar.”

His smile faded. “Good or bad?”

“Important.” _Whether it’s good or bad is up to you._

“Okay...”

“Wait.” All of a sudden, I realized what we needed. Hot beverages. This conversation couldn’t happen without something warm in our bellies. “I think we need some hot beverages first.”

“You want some Starbucks?” The university café wasn’t open at this hour.

“Well...let’s just get some from the vending machine downstairs.” _I would rather be back in the room quicker...the sooner we talk, the better._

“All right...” Jahar grinned. “Even though that’s some candy-ass coffee.”

* * *

Minutes later, “candy-ass” coffees in hand, the two of us were back in my room, behind a closed door.

Just us. The way it needed to be. I couldn’t handle telling him the news in a public coffee shop.

“Okay.” We sat down on my bed. “What’s the big news, girl?”

I froze. Now that the moment was right, my tongue wouldn’t cooperate. Why was life like that?

“Ummm...” I took a big drink of my artificially-flavored French vanilla latte. Perhaps a prop would help.

I picked up the item wrapped in toilet paper and took the paper off. I showed it to Jahar.

“What am I looking at?” he asked.

“It’s...it’s a home pregnancy test.”

He turned his head and stared at me incredulously.

“You see the little blue cross?”

“Uh, huh.”

“It means...” I looked down at my legs and crossed one over the other. “Means...” No. I had to look him in the eyes when saying it. “Jahar...I’m pregnant.”

The silence in the room felt as if someone had pressed the mute button. Not quiet, but _silence._

“No...” His whisper felt like a roar.

“Yes.”

“That’s impossible. You’re taking pills.”

“Yes, I did. Every day, at the same time. But...” I closed my eyes, remembering a statistic I had read online. “Ninety-eight percent effectiveness does not equal impossible.”

“Dayum.” Jahar shook his head. “I must have some super fucking sperm – got through with only a two percent chance!” The high pitch of his laugh betrayed the anxiety beneath it.

“Maybe so. But now, we have some decisions to make.” I stroked the back of his hand. “What do you want me to do?”

Jahar gripped my hands tightly.

“I know what I _don’t_ want.” His brown eyes glittered with determination. “No abortion. This life came to us for a reason. We need to give it a chance. And no adoption, either. In my family, we take care of our own. I couldn’t stand the thought of someone else raising my – _our_ child.”

I had been pro-choice since I understood what the term meant...and still, his statement filled me with joy.

_There could be a little Jahar growing inside me. Of course I’m going to give birth, and of course I’m holding on to him._

“I couldn’t stand that thought, either. But...oh, Jahar,” I sighed. “I never thought this would happen. I saw episodes of ‘Teen Mom’ on MTV, and I promised myself I’d be careful. I wasn’t going to have a baby until I was at least twenty-eight, out of school, with money in the bank and a husband I could trust to be a good father. But here I am, eighteen, still a freshman, no job, not married. I had a plan for my future...and now that’s totally changed.” Tears fell from my eyes. “I’m scared.”

Jahar’s arms closed around me. I sighed and snuggled up to him. Being close to his strong young body, hearing his heart beat, always made me feel safe, that everything was going to be all right.

"I’m not gonna lie – I’m scared, too. But being scared doesn’t mean we just do nothing. Here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna tell our families about our baby. They’ll be shocked, but then they’ll support us all the way. I know it.

“Then, you and I will get married. No child of mine will be born out of wedlock. He – or she – will have both my name and my protection.”

Yes, it was retrograde to have a man declaring that we _would_ get married, and that our child needed his name and his protection.

But damn, just hearing it made me feel so good. And loved.

“After that...we’ll take it one day at a time. People our age – or younger – have become parents since humans started walking on two feet. In the big picture, it’s not a big deal. We’ll adapt. We’ll do what we need to do. And I mean _we._ ”

For the first time that night, I smiled.

Yes.

Everything would be all right – no matter what we would face. Jahar and I had each other. Together, we had all of the strength we needed.

Who could ask for anything more?

“Oh, Jahar. My Jahar. I love you so much...and I’m so grateful that you’re the father of my child.”

“I love you, too.” He placed a hand on my belly. “And you, baby Tsarnaev. I can’t wait to meet you. I promise I’ll take good care of you...and your mother.” He bent down to kiss my belly. “I promise.”

Then, he picked up the little paper cup he got from the vending machine and drank down the last of his cappuccino.

“Damn, I’m so caffeinated. Combined with the news, I don’t think I can sleep now. So...” Jahar whispered into my ear.

“Oh, _Jahar..._ ” My entire body blushed.

“What do we have to lose now? Or, should I say, gain?” He chuckled and placed his hand on my thigh. “So...d’ya wanna?”

“Of course I wanna. How could I not, with my husband-to-be?”

With one tug, he pulled me down to the bed. Our lips touched, our hands uncovered each other’s skin, and, once more, we performed the dance that, in a magical instance about one-and-a-half months ago, turned two into three.

* * *

Change happens – in the time it takes for a blue cross to appear on a pregnancy test, in the time it takes to say three important words, in the time it takes for a young man to step up for the life he had helped create.

Change happens to all of us.

What we do about it shows us who we are.


End file.
